Object oriented mission framework and system and method

ABSTRACT

A mission system includes a peer vector machine having a host processor and pipeline accelerator and including bridge objects that provide communication via signal objects, message objects, and mission objects.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

The present application claims priority from U.S. provisional patent application No. 60/615,192, filed on Oct. 1, 2004; U.S. Provisional patent application No. 60/615,157, filed Oct. 1, 2004; U.S. provisional patent application No. 60/615,170 filed Oct. 1, 2004; U.S. provisional patent application No. 60/615,158 filed Oct. 1, 2004; U.S. provisional patent application No. 60/615,193 filed Oct. 1, 2004 and, U.S. provisional patent application No. 60/615,050, filed Oct. 1, 2004, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety and for all their teachings and disclosures.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/684,102 entitled IMPROVED COMPUTING ARCHITECTURE AND RELATED SYSTEM AND METHOD (Attorney Docket No. 1934-11-3), Ser. No. 10/684,053 entitled COMPUTING MACHINE HAVING IMPROVED COMPUTING ARCHITECTURE AND RELATED SYSTEM AND METHOD (Attorney Docket No. 1934-12-3), Ser. No. 10/684,057 entitled PROGRAMMABLE CIRCUIT AND RELATED COMPUTING MACHINE AND METHOD (Attorney Docket No. 1934-14-3), and Ser. No. 10/683,932 entitled PIPELINE ACCELERATOR HAVING MULTIPLE PIPELINE UNITS AND RELATED COMPUTING MACHINE AND METHOD (Attorney Docket No. 1934-15-3), which have a common filing date and owner and which are incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

Certain huge systems are often called missions. The software that sort of controls these systems is called mission framework. An example is a ship which would be considered the main big system, and which includes a number of sub-systems like the fire-control subsystem, the sonar subsystem etc. The mission framework typically includes software objects that run the subsystems.

For example on the third page of the attached slide presentation entitled General Mission Framework, a number of subsystems A, B and C are encompassed in the mission. Each of these subsystems has access to mission objects. The subsystems include a black board, which is merely a place where an object would send a message to and other objects would subscribe to these messages. It is sort of like a communication interface, which is similar to the interface between the pipeline unit side and the host side of a PVM machine.

SUMMARY

According to one aspect of the present invention, a mission system includes a peer vector machine having a host processor and pipeline accelerator and including bridge objects that provide communication via signal objects, message objects, and mission objects.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a functional diagram illustrating a general mission framework including that is implemented in a peer vector machine according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional diagram illustrating a ship restoration mission framework including that is implemented in a peer vector machine according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a functional diagram illustrating an anti-terrorist mission framework including that is implemented in a peer vector machine according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a function diagram illustrating the blackboard framework structure for the mission frameworks of FIGS. 1-3.

FIG. 5 is a more detailed functional block diagram of one embodiment of the host processor and pipeline accelerator of the peer vector machine for implementing the frameworks of FIGS. 1-3.

FIG. 6 is a more detailed block diagram of one embodiment of the pipeline accelerator of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is an even more detailed block diagram of one embodiment of the hardwired pipeline circuit and the data memory of FIG. 6.

DESCRIPTION

An embodiment of the invention is an implementation of a mission framework for a mission system using the Peer Vector Machine (PVM). Furthermore, one can also use the edge factory techniques, which are disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 09/956,624, where remote sensor actuators can be configured using objects and also where the edge framework is connected to the pipeline unit side of a Peer Vector Machine as in U.S. application Ser. No. ______ entitled REMOTE SENSOR PROCESSING SYSTEM AND METHOD (1934-021-03), filed Oct. 4, 2005, both of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Therefore, referring to the general mission framework figure of the attached figures, there would be mission objects that each of the subsystems could access. Therefore, the subsystems look like they would be implemented with mission object applications. Then they could communicate with each other and to pipeline units (pipeline calculations) via these blackboard bridges that could be the same as the host pipeline unit interface in the PVM. Maybe another way to look at this would be the blackboard bridge is really the interface between the host side where the mission objects are found and the pipeline unit side. However, it also looks like there is a separate place for CPU calculations where perhaps the PVM would be the CPU calculation and the pipeline unit calculation and have their interface to each other in the mission objects be this compute framework. So here it adds another level to the PVM where we have these mission objects running in software to implement these different subsystems and then through these mission objects the subsystems would off-load data calculations using message objects to the PVM which would then decide where these calculations were to occur whether on the host side (CPU calculations) or the pipeline unit side (pipeline calculations).

Another aspect of this is the edge factory where the subsystems can communicate again via signal objects with remote actuators and receive information from remote sensors and provide this information back to either the subsystem objects or to the PVM for data calculations. Likewise, data can be provided via the edge framework to the remote actuators. The edge framework here would use signal objects to both receive data from the remote sensors and provide data to the remote actuators. A signal object is essentially a one-way message so it is similar to a message object except it only has to be constructed for going in one direction. So the edge framework would take data from the blackboard bridges and convert it into signal objects and provide data to the blackboard bridges and also the PVM would receive information from the blackboard bridges and then communicate internally via message objects.

In one example, where one of the subsystems was a fire-control system for a ship, the remote sensors may include temperature sensors and smoke sensors to detect for fires and the remote actuators might include a shut-off valve that control different portions of the sprinkler system.

If a fire were detected, not only would the system try to contain the fire where it existed by first of all sensing the fire and then turning on the sprinkler system, but it could also run a simulation to predict where the fire may go and/or what consequences the fire may have so as to minimize the damage and other problems. For example, the system could try to determine where smoke would go so it would turn off portions of the ventilation system so that smoke is not blown into portions of the ship where the fire is not. Also it may be used to strategically shut down portions of the ventilation system to deprive the fire of oxygen. In addition, the calculations may be used to turn on sprinkler systems in other compartments perhaps to wet things down as a preempt of strike to prevent the spread of the fire although it may cause damage and may not be an option. A purpose of including the PVM architecture in the system is that these prediction calculations are very intensive and just using a computer they may not be able to be done quickly enough to be able to predict the spread of the fire to implement these preemptive measures. This example is illustrated in the next page of the attached figures.

In the figure entitled NBC Framework, this example mission system is a system for responding to various types of terror attacks. In this case it would be nuclear attack, biological attack, or chemical attack. So this system uses sensors to detect if there is such an attack and then depending on what type of attack is sensed implements some calculations and some preemptive measures through remote actuators. For example, suppose a dirty bomb exploded. Since this is a nuclear attack, the system may measure the wind patterns through various sensors located in various places throughout the area, and then run a prediction algorithm to predict where radiation may spread. This way, the proper places could be evacuated and the proper actions could be taken at the proper locations. Of course for a chemical or biological attack, the parameters would be different. For example, if a biological agent was introduced into a water supply then perhaps certain shut-offs would have to be shut-off to isolate the agent and a prediction of how far the agent has gotten into the water supply may be made.

In each of the above examples, again these prediction algorithms are very intensive, so using the PVM architecture would greatly enhance the speed at which these complex algorithms could be calculated.

The Frameworks for handling Signals and distributed computation have been disclosed in prior patent applications. The integration of these 2 frameworks with a unique problem domain specific framework is disclosed, which would be used by a business area to rapidly construct and deploy number of different mission systems sharing this problem domain. An environment is proposed to aid the construction of a mission framework for a unique problem domain.

By reusing the distributed computation framework and the remote sensing and control framework, the design of a framework for a specific problem domain or mission is greatly simplified. A third framework specific to the problem domain is distinguished. Communication dependencies exist between the three frameworks, which can be specified in a new mission system design environment. A problem domain framework Template would be provided for the mission system framework designer to use in customizing the problem domain framework to the desired mission.

The construction of a system of frameworks by a business area becomes less of a burden, and the frameworks become more robust, when reuse of a subsystem of frameworks is instituted. The parts of a framework system that are tailored to a mission are isolated from the parts that don't change. This reduces design complexity and lifecycle cost.

From the foregoing it will be appreciated that, although specific embodiments of the invention have been described herein for purposes of illustration, various modifications may be made without deviating from the spirit and scope of the invention. 

1. A mission system includes a peer vector machine having a host processor and pipeline accelerator and including bridge objects that provide communication via signal objects, message objects, and mission objects. 